Christianity and Social Justice: exploring the meaning of welfare reform

This presentation was given to the Archbishop of York and to bishops from the North East of England and Yorkshire. It explores the current crisis in the welfare state in the UK, the myths that
…

This presentation was given to the Archbishop of York and to bishops from the North East of England and Yorkshire. It explores the current crisis in the welfare state in the UK, the myths that dominate thinking and outlines the Christian case for some new and deeper thinking about the purpose and design of the welfare state.

Transcript

2.
Dr Simon Duffy
• Worked with disabled people for 24 years; invented personal
budgets and other social innovations; founded and led several
charities and services.
• Awarded RSA Prince Albert Medal 2008 and SPA Award for
Outstanding Contribution in Social Policy 2011.
• Christian, philosopher and writer with a special interest in
ethics and social justice.
• Director of The Centre for Welfare Reform, Chair of the Housing
& Support Alliance, Policy Advisor to the Campaign for a Fair
Society and Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the University
of Birmingham.
• Not a member of any particular political party.

3.
1. The welfare state is under attack
2. Our understanding of welfare is confused
3. The Church could help us rethink welfare

5.
After meeting with community groups in the
North of England a Finnish researcher asked:
“What’s the problem with ‘welfare’? In Finnish it
just means ‘well being’”

6.
Today ‘welfare reform’ is a central political project.
The current government - building on the work of the previous
government - is pursuing policies that are justified in strong
moral terms and which seek to increase employment, personal
responsibility and stronger communities.
However, as these goals are converted into practical policies
and media soundbites they often seem to reinforce bigotry,
ignorance and injustice.
[NB. The “Benefit Thieves”
Campaign was developed by
New Labour.]

7.
The terms ‘austerity’ and ‘fairness’ are used to
justify cuts in public spending and welfare
reforms.
but these cuts target the very people that a fair
society should protect.

12.
Child Benefit freeze
Abolition of Sure Start Maternity for second
and subsequent children
Change to CPI indexation of benefits Reductions in support for carers
Replacing DLA with PIP
Child Benefit clawback from higher rate
taxpayers
Time-limiting of contributory ESA Transfer of Social Fund to local government
Council Tax Benefit – 10% reduction and
localisation
Extension of JSA lone parents with a youngest
child aged 5-6
Housing Benefit cuts Household Benefit cap
Abolition of the Independent Living Fund Continued use of ATOS or others
Universal Credit Reductions in ‘Access to Work’ funding
Closure of Remploy services Abolition of the Child Trust Fund
Tax credit changes Abolition of the Health in Pregnancy Grant
Abolition of the Child Trust Fund Abolition of the ESA youth rules

16.
The cuts in benefits and the cuts in social care
fall disproportionately on two overlapping
groups: people in poverty and disabled people
(including children and frail older people).
They fall hardest of all on people with the most
severe disabilities, who rely on both benefits
and social care.

17.
There is no discussion of the real
cause of the current crisis:
over-borrowing by home owners &
over-lending by banks.

21.
‘Welfare reform’ has become code for a redistribution of
resources away from the poorest and towards the better off.
In the competition for political power politicians are taking care
to ensure that they target benefits on swing voters: home
owners, families with two employed parents, middle-income
earners.
The median voter is more important than any other. We live in a
medianocracy.

22.
Most of what we think we know about welfare
is false...
debate is dominated by powerful myths.

23.
•The welfare state caused the current crisis
•The welfare state benefits the poor
•The welfare state taxes the rich
•The welfare state encourages fraud & idleness
•The welfare state must be centralised
•The welfare state must be in control
welfare myths

27.
benefits fraud is dwarfed by fraud by taxpayers and
by government itself

28.
there are very few fit and healthy working age
adults who just rely on benefits

29.
the UK is the second most centralised welfare state
in the world (after New Zealand)

30.
we do not need to treat services as professionally
defined gifts - we can have entitlements

31.
Overheard at a public policy conference in London:
“The welfare state exists for the benefit of the poor.”
This statement was made, without irony, by a senior academic
and made to a room full of public servants, politicians, think-
tankers and others; all of whom are utterly dependent on the
patronage of the welfare state.
What other people get is a ‘hand out’, while what I receive is an
entitlement. We are blind to the entitlements of others; but all
too eager to expand our own sense of entitlement.

32.
Perhaps welfare myths flourish for a purpose...
to assure us of our own superiority.

35.
1. The first principle is that any proposals for the future, while they should use to the full the
experience gathered in the past, should not be restricted by consideration of sectional interests
established in the obtaining of that experience. Now, when the war is abolishing landmarks of
every kind, is the opportunity for using experience in a clear field. A revolutionary moment in the
world's history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.2. The second principle is that
organisation of social insurance should be treated as one part only of a comprehensive policy of
social progress. Social insurance fully developed may provide income security; it is an attack
upon Want. But Want is one only of five giants on the road of reconstruction and in some ways
the easiest to attack. The others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.3. The third
principle is that social security must be achieved by co-operation between the State and the
individual. The State should offer security for service and contribution. The State in organising
security should not stifle incentive, opportunity, responsibility; in establishing a national
minimum, it should leave room and encouragement for voluntary action by each individual to
provide more than that minimum for himself and his family.
William Beveridge
How might such martial language mislead us?
the foundation of the welfare state

36.
•Meritocracy - most people lack the capacity to
make good decisions for themselves
•Centralisation - power and control needs to be
centralised
•Standardisation - equity is more about procedural
uniformity than about resources or opportunities
•Individualisation - firms, communities, Churches
friends and family will always be there, and so can be
taken for granted
faulty design assumptions

38.
We have little faith in the 'average sensual man', we do not believe that he can do
more than describe his grievances, we do not think he can prescribe the remedies
Beatrice Webb
Collectivism has put all their eggs in one basket. I do not think that Mr Shaw
believes, or that anybody, believes, that 12,000,000 men, say, carry the basket, or
look after the basket, or have any real distributed control over the eggs in the
basket. I believe that it is controlled from the centre by a few people. They may be
quite right or quite necessary. A certain limit to that sort of control any sane man
will recognise as necessary: it is not the same thing as the Commons controlling
the means of production. It is a few oligarchs or a few officials who do in fact
control all the means of production.
G K Chesterton
Fabian centralism defeated other perspectives

40.
• Elitism - power and control is concentrated in the hands of
powerful private and public elites
• Isolation - people are increasingly cut off from each other
and the means to rich and meaningful lives
• Poverty - differences in income are growing, freedom for
leisure and personal development diminishing
• Stigma - some of us are increasingly marked out as less
worthy, less valuable or a threat to society
• Despair - mental illness, hopelessness and a growing
sense of spiritual emptiness
have we created five new giants?

41.
The aim of a Christian social order is the fullest possible
development of individual personality in the widest and
deepest possible fellowship.
William Temple
The [new 1834] Poor Law treated the claims of the poor, not as
an integral part of the rights of the citizen, but as an alternative
to them - as claims which could be met only if the claimants
ceased to be citizens in any true sense of the world.
T H Marshall
this was not the aim of early designers

43.
There are eight degrees of charity, one higher than the other.
The highest degree, exceeded by none, is that of the person
who assists a poor Jew by providing him with a gift or loan or by
accepting him into a business partnership or by helping him
find employment - in a word, by putting him where he can
dispense with other people's aid.
Maimonides
and the means to citizenship,
should be citizenship

48.
True love is excess of justice, excess that goes farther than justice, but never destruction of
justice, which must be and must remain the basic form of love.
Benedict XVI
It is axiomatic that Love should be the predominant Christian impulse, and that the primary
form of love in social organisation is Justice.
William Temple
Christ does not call his benefactors loving or charitable. He calls them just. The Gospel makes no
distinction between the love of our neighbour and justice. In the eyes of the Greeks also a
respect for Zeus the suppliant was the first duty of justice. We have invented the distinction
between justice and charity. It is easy to understand why.
Simone Weil
The Christian call for social justice is central to our
faith and our role in the world

50.
Elements of a reformed welfare system:
Human rights and
clear entitlements
Diverse, accessible and
vibrant communities
More support for
families
Social innovation
and dynamism
cc
Guaranteed minimums
and increased equality
Universal securities
and fair taxes
Increased choice
and control for
citizens
Professional integrity
and independence
Ecological sustainability
Constitutional
reform Global justice

51.
The Church may not have all the
answers...
but it can ask the right questions.

52.
• Increasing parliamentary scrutiny - cf. WOW Campaign and
demand for a Cumulative Impact Assessment.
• Role of the Church in attacking myths and restoring truth to
the debate.
• Collaboration and exploration of social innovation and
community partnerships.
• Deeper conversations about welfare reform and the
purpose of the welfare state.
for more info: www.centreforwelfarereform.org
or contact: simon@centreforwelfarereform.org